


meanwhile, i will count the hours like pennies in my hand

by perennials



Series: whence [6]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 10:32:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19766374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perennials/pseuds/perennials
Summary: Nagoya is several cities away.





	meanwhile, i will count the hours like pennies in my hand

**Author's Note:**

> That is why it is called longing. It has to go a long way. To the ends of the earth.

Tsukishima Kei closes the distance between his toothbrush and the bathroom counter with his arm, elbow first. His eyes are puffy and half-shut and all the hair on the left side of his head is standing up. He brushes his teeth. He brushes his teeth. He washes his hands. He leaves the bathroom and the distance between the smooth marble counter and himself implodes like a rubber band let loose, ricocheting past his figure in the hallway, whistling violently into the living room where Tsukishima Kei makes toast for one and pours coffee for one and turns on the television. The newscaster smiles out of his cereal box and talks about the weather. Nagoya is several cities away. It will not rain there today.

Outside his first-floor apartment, Tokyo shines, dull as a one-yen coin. He steps into his shoes and slides his headphones over his ears, flattening the hair on the left side of his head. He badly needs a haircut, but doesn’t want to get one. The scissors are carefully kept in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. Tsukishima Kei goes to work this morning like he does on every other morning, standing in the sardine-can train carriage with all the other Tsukishima Kei’s going to work in the morning and trying not to feel too much like he is in mourning while the music blasts him, a cold front made of sound. Nagoya might laugh at him if Nagoya were here, but it is gray here in Tokyo. Several cities are sunny today. Just not his.

Last night he dreamed about being fifteen again, looking through keyholes at pretty boys with messy hair and cattish smiles, and when he woke up his chest felt tight as if he had been running. He had not been running, only trying to figure out how long he could go without cutting his hair while the other toothbrush in the bathroom gathered mold. Perhaps he had opened a website for long-distance train rides, and then closed it. He did not care to remember.

Either way, Tsukishima Kei is exactly half an hour early to work today. As he slides into his office cubicle half an hour before the rest of his colleagues, his phone begins to vibrate. He drops his briefcase at his feet.

“Kei,” says the caller when he picks up. His voice is low and warm, all soft like scented fabric softener and tinted with color. He sounds like he knows how to use scissors properly.

“Please come back soon, my hair is going to cause a natural disaster to befall the city otherwise,” Kei tells him, smiling despite himself.  


It will not rain today in Tokyo either. He is sure of it.

**Author's Note:**

> talk to me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/nikiforcvs) or [tumblr](http://corpsentry.tumblr.com/)
> 
> i dumped a bunch of quotes on twitter and took requests so this is one of them. the inspired quote is the exact same as the great big map's by pure coincidence (karma). i have been experimenting with my style lately so this should be a significant departure from what i've written in the past, for better or worse. tsukishima's older here, too, which i will weakly use to justify him talking like he's a mildly sentient rock  
> i'm really not supposed to be writing because (alt pop hands) my a levels and (soft rock hands) gotta get my shit together but i'm just drifting in and out of old fandoms while i slowly work my way through kurobasu, so yeah
> 
> have a good one


End file.
